A Virginia Department of Transportation truck hauls road salt out to a plow at the Harrisonburg station as the state prepares for snow Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014, in Harrisonburg, Va. (AP Photo/The Daily News-Record, Jason Lenhart)

Too much salt in your diet can cause problems, but what about too much salt on the roads?

With winter weather and freezing roads, municipalities and counties have been using more and more salt, brine and chemicals to create the safest roads possible. But, as that salt runs off the streets, it finds its way to groundwater and streams, negatively affecting ecosystems, according to environmental groups.

“Road salt does have the potential to impact land vegetation, water quality and aquatic ecosystems,” said Bob Considine at the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

“It’s a huge problem for the environment,” added Maya van Rossum, the Delaware riverkeeper at the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, an environmental activist group that aims to curb pollution in the waterways that lead to the river and the Delaware River itself.

New Jersey has seen one of its most active winter seasons in recent history. A polar vortex and a nor’easter, along with regular winter weather, have dumped several feet of snow on the area and caused extremely low temperatures.

Salt, brine and calcium chloride are regularly used as both preventative and reactive measures against icy roads, walkways and driveways, but the more that gets put down, the more that ends up in the water.

Before the most recent storm, Gloucester County had used 7,622 tons of salt, 25,000 gallons of brine and 2,500 gallons of calcium chloride, according to county spokeswoman Deb Sellitto. As of Friday afternoon, Cumberland County had used 5,200 tons of salt and 223,450 gallons of brine, county spokesman Keith Wasserman said.

When the snow melts, all of that salt runs off the roads, down drainage ditches and into the streams.

“High concentrations in the water can stay there for a long time. It kind of becomes part of that stream ecosystem,” van Rossum said. “It really is a serious concern. It has implications for the aquatic ecosystem.”

Excessive salt buildup can decrease oxygen levels and impact bottom-dwelling species and fish, according to the DEP.

It can be lethal to trout, van Rossum said, and can cause die off of plants surrounding the waterways.

The DEP does not regulate the application of road salt, but it does regulate the storage of that salt. It also issued permits for towns to implement municipal stormwater regulation programs that are created to lessen the impacts of rain, runoff and snowmelt.

In order to minimize the negative impact, the Riverkeeper Network suggests using only what is necessary to melt the ice.

“We understand why salt gets used for people’s safety,” van Rossum said. “But how many times have you driven down and seen a whole pile of salt? There are best management practices to use this stuff to minimize this. You’re putting something down on the surface of the earth that doesn’t belong there.”